Niggerhead grows from the ponderosa pine zone up to and including the 

 spruce zone, usually in moist, but not saturated soil, but sometimes in mod- 

 erately dry, poor, shallow soil. Open or shaded streambanks, hillsides, and 

 well-drained mountain swales, open parks, and partially shaded slopes in open 

 aspen stands are its favorite sites. One of its most common plant associates 

 is false-hellebore. Throughout most of its range it grows scattermgly, but it 

 occasionally covers a few square rods densely, and in certain localities it is 

 abundant over extensive areas. It is perhaps most common in Utah, where 

 it is fairly prevalent throughout the aspen zone. Before the normal plant 

 cover on certain ranges in the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah was dis- 

 turbed by continued past overgrazing, with resultant erosion and soil impoverish- 

 ment, niggerhead was not so extensive or abundant as it is now. These con- 

 ditions resulted in the decrease in density of the more palatable species, and 

 greatly accelerated the invasion of these lands by niggerhead. 



Although niggerhead is low in palatability or even worthless on most ranges, 

 on some sheep or common use areas it is fair or occasionally fairly good. 

 Furthermore, in spite of its usual low palatability, it often supplies consid- 

 erable forage by virtue of its commonness, large size, and abundant, large 

 leaves. Even when young the stems are too tough and woody for consumption 

 by any class of livestock. Cattle and horses do not relish the flower heads as 

 do sheep, but those parts are often above the reach of sheep. Only where there 

 is a dearth of other forage, as on overstocked ranges, do sheep eat the leaves 

 sufficiently to strip the plants quite bare of them. Niggerhead is most likely to 

 be grazed when growing in mixture with other plants. 



In the absence of better plants, niggerhead gives a measure of protection 

 against erosion and floods, although it is not nearly so effective as the normal 

 climax plant cover of bunchgrasses which it has replaced. Whatever pro- 

 tective value it thus affords, is largely due to the deep-growing, coarse, woody, 

 and fibrous roots and to the rapidly formed basal bunches of many-stemmed 

 leafy shoots from the rootcrown, which often attain a diameter up to 1 or 2 

 feet in the older plants. 



The stems of niggerhead are unbranched except occasionally near the top. 

 The leaves vary considerably in size, but average about 2% inches wide and 

 5% inches long on the main body of the plant. The slightly winged leafstalks 

 (petioles) of the basal leaves are several inches long and become increasingly 

 shorter near the top where the leaves become stalkless (sessile). Near the 

 ends of the stems, the leaves are fewer and much reduced in size, making 

 the conelike, dark brown flower heads at the apex very conspicuous. These 

 heads start as small buttons, which gradually elongate until at blossoming 

 time, about the middle of August, they attain full growth and may then 

 become 2 inches long. Marked variations in size of the plant and its parts 

 may occur, due to site conditions. 



CONEFLOWERS 



Rudbeck'ia spp. 



This native North American genus was named Rudbeckia by the famous 

 Swedish botanist Linnaeus in honor of the two Professors Rudbeck, father 

 and son, who had been his predecessors at the University of Upsala. 



About six or seven species of coneflower grow naturally on western ranges 

 and of these several are cultivated as garden flowers. Among these ornamental 

 species are black-eyed-susan (R. hirta), a biennial common in Colorado and 

 eastward, and cutleaf coneflower (R. lacmiata), a horticultural variety of 

 which is the well-known goldenglow. Cutleaf coneflower naturally extends 

 from Montana south to Arizona and New Mexico and eastward to the Atlantic 

 seaboard. Unlike niggerhead, which has no ray flowers, most of the other 

 species of Rudbeckia, including black-eyed-susan and cutleaf coneflower, have 

 conspicuous petallike yellow or orange rays. 



With the exception of niggerhead, Rudbeckia, species are seldom of any 

 importance as forage plants, their palatability usually ranging from worthless 

 to poor. However, in parts of Colorado and Wyoming black-eyed-susan is 

 accounted fair feed for cattle and fairly good for sheep, a condition which 

 is probably directly associated with a paucity of better feed and may indicate 

 locally impoverished soil conditions. 



